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06 August 2011

Book du jour - Thread Cloud 4

An unlikely start for a "cloud" -
I cut the grid into three strips and each of those into 4, then mixed up the pieces and layered them onto either side of a strip of tissue paper, zigzaging down the vertical seams. Still doesn't "do" the cloud thing -
Some circles lying around on the worktop made me wonder "what if...." so I punched some more out of an old envelope. Adding them introduced lots more of the drifty thread ends -
The circles are random, as are the square holes (and most of the stitching). Can this be developed in some more controlled way? Is there another idea, an intention, that this fits into? Does it "mean" anything as is?

If someone was seeing this as a book for the first time (which is very different from seeing it after you've made it!) what would they see as they picked up and looked through?
The threads would lie swirled in the palms of their hands, or fall between the hands; they'd notice some blue ones amid the white and cream. The pages on the left are shiny-white and on the right there is writing under the tissue paper. Some of the circles are on top, some behind; some are blue-patterned and some are white. Some have little orange markings, and one or two have black marks or writing. Some are reflective (cellophane). All are held on by lines of machine stitching - usually short, straight lines but sometimes long diagonal lines. There is zigzag stitch at the edges of the pages, and down the middle of the book as the pages turn. There is also zigzag, sometimes blue sometimes cream, along the bottom edge.

The reader might go back to the start to search for "meaning" or a pattern or a sequence, or they might turn the book over and look at it "from the back" and notice how some of the holes made by the stitching are more pronounced. They might read the writing through the tissue paper and try to determine what the original communication was "about".

They would hear the crinkle of the tissue and notice the contrast between the hard paper and the soft threads.

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic in every way, including your describing what one would see if looking at the book in hand. I love it. xo

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  2. I too found your description quite insightful. It was also a way to intrigue and inform without being "preachy." Interesting -- I'm learning from you in more ways than one.

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